The USA has NO Official language

Skippy   Thu Jul 10, 2008 9:57 pm GMT
Ditto Bill. And troll. Another one who's never been to the US pretending to be from the US...
Guest   Thu Jul 10, 2008 10:33 pm GMT
there was a supreme court ruling that held that the constitution did not permit states to secede form the union. and that the ordinances of secession, and all the acts of the legislatures within seceding states intended to give effect to such ordinances, were "absolutely null".

Texas v. White
Guest   Thu Jul 10, 2008 11:19 pm GMT
<<Of course, in this regard probably the closest thing to such is California, which due to its strong economic position and large population has managed to do things that most other states could not do effectively, such as actually going ahead of the national government in making policies which these days are generally treated as being primarily national in nature (such as policies with respect to product safety and like).>>

True, but whenever California gets a little too liberal for the federal government's tastes, the feds step in, and through force, coercion, intimidation, lawsuits, and threats of prosecution or budget cuts, violate California voters' rights. Witness the medicinal marijuana law that the California voters voted in favor of unanimously. The DEA continues to raid pot pharmacies, intimidate its customers, and arrest doctors who prescribe marijuana for medicinal use. They'll probably do something similar with gay marriages. The feds claim federal law trumps state laws, yet whenever the American people call upon the federal government to mandate laws that the feds deem too controversial (i.e., universal healthcare, immigration laws, environmental laws, etc.), the feds frequently defer to the states.
Guest   Fri Jul 11, 2008 1:25 am GMT
and "states rights" are only ever defended by politicians when it comes to insanely conservative positions, like slavery, guns, and the right to restrict personal choice when it comes to sex and sexuality.

So, to sum it up: the US is federal when there are liberal issues to overturn, such as gay marriage and medical marijuana. But, the US is a state-level society when it comes to states who ban abortion, try to reinstate slavery, or try to make being gay an offense punishable by death.

Let me remind the foreigners here, those batshit insane conservative states are all mostly unpopulated wastelands... the way the US government is set up is that each state gets an equal say in policy and politics, even if only 2 people live there and they're both CommieNazi pedophiles. Since the few and dispersed wield more power than the highly congested (by virtue of each individual having more say relatively), that's why hellholes like the South or the Midwest have had so much influence on US government.

Population wise, most Americans live in the Northeast, California, and the cities in Texas, and those are all pretty liberal areas.
K. T. (of the so-called h   Fri Jul 11, 2008 2:29 am GMT
"Let me remind the foreigners here, those batshit insane conservative states are all mostly unpopulated wastelands... the way the US government is set up is that each state gets an equal say in policy and politics, even if only 2 people live there and they're both CommieNazi pedophiles. Since the few and dispersed wield more power than the highly congested (by virtue of each individual having more say relatively), that's why hellholes like the South or the Midwest have had so much influence on US government."-Guest

Your viewpoint is rather twisted. I almost wonder if you are playing the role of the twisted, n'er been anywhere NY or Californian.

If you are serious, you aren't though, right?, then you aren't very fair-minded.
K. T.   Fri Jul 11, 2008 2:31 am GMT
"As in, we up north work our asses off so people in the south can be all lazy and slow and Southern Gentlemanly ... and then rip apart the northerners for being busy and harried. We're paying for your lifestyle, you know"

Could you get my mint julep for me please? Dang! You are awfully slow for a northerner.
Guest   Fri Jul 11, 2008 2:37 am GMT
Ишь какой нетерпеливый отшельник! Давай уберемся и выстроимся для решительного вопроса, не заданного тебе мною!
Uriel   Fri Jul 11, 2008 4:54 am GMT
<<Despite widespread disdain in America for Southern American English, I've heard quite a few Brits say that they thought the dialect was pleasant>>

I've always found that bizarre, too! No accounting for taste....


I can't think of any states that are even jokingly considering secession from the US -- why would any of them want to? To go off and fend for themselves would be silliness, and the Civil War pretty much established that the US is a little like a gang -- you can join, but the only way you're ever leaving is feet first. Vermont or New Hampshire or wherever may retain the right to secede on paper, but try it in real life, and I don't think they'd get very far! Yes, Texas was once its own country, and so were California and Hawaii (briefly, in CA's case), but that was long ago (and TX only braved it alone because the US wouldn't touch them with a ten foot pole after they revolted against Mexico -- the original idea was to get immediately admitted to the union).
JohnnyC   Thu Jul 17, 2008 7:01 pm GMT
<<So, to sum it up: the US is federal when there are liberal issues to overturn, such as gay marriage and medical marijuana>>

Well, first of all I don't think medical marijuana is a liberal issue. I agree with your assertion that "state's rights" is normally brought up by conservatives for issues near to their hearts like the ones you mention, but when you refer to slavery and death penalty for gays, you're speaking in hyperbole. Slavery was a long time ago and the "death for gays" crowd is a very small minirity of the extreme religious right.

As a classic liberal, I often agree with the state's rights arguments on issues such as medical marijuana and gay marriage and it bothers me that defending states rights has become associated with people like Jesse Helms.

<<Let me remind the foreigners here, those batshit insane conservative states are all mostly unpopulated wastelands>>

Dude, you're either uninformed or you're trolling. Have you been to Atlanta or Dallas? There are plenty of populated areas in the south and there are plenty of wastelands in the north. I've mey people in Brooklyn who have the hick mentality and I've met people in Alabama who were very progressive. Let's not perpetuate negative, inaccurate stereotypes for our cousins across the water (the foreigners you referred to).
Wintereis   Thu Jul 17, 2008 7:55 pm GMT
<<Dude, you're either uninformed or you're trolling. Have you been to Atlanta or Dallas? There are plenty of populated areas in the south and there are plenty of wastelands in the north. I've mey people in Brooklyn who have the hick mentality and I've met people in Alabama who were very progressive. Let's not perpetuate negative, inaccurate stereotypes for our cousins across the water (the foreigners you referred to).>>

This is true. I have a friend, an African American woman originally from Brooklyn, who recently finished her PhD in Psychology at UNL--Lincoln, NE. While her mother was visiting her, they went shopping. When the clerk asked her mother if she found everything okay, her mother freaked out thinking that the question had some sort of racist connotation. My friend had to calm her mother and tell her that the clerk was actually trying to be courteous and make sure she had everything she needed. It is also important to note that the first state that allowed women to vote was Wyoming-certainly considered to be a "waste land" by much of the country. Wyoming is also the first state to have a female Governor--this was long before Roosevelt brought in the first female cabinet member. Also, the state is currently experiencing a boom and is wondering where to invest its excess income. So, unlike California, which recently considered laying off many of its public school teachers, and Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Michigan-- the "waste land" is rather prosperous.

Another friend of mine is from Alabama and is working on her masters degree in environmental studies. I would be hard pressed to call her anything but a well educated, hard working, and sincerely responsible citizen, who happens to hate the stereotypes often used against Southerners.


THE river's tent is broken: the last fingers of leaf
Clutch and sink into the wet bank. The wind
Crosses the brown land, unheard. The nymphs are departed.
Sweet Thames, run softly, till I end my song.
The river bears no empty bottles, sandwich papers,
Silk handkerchiefs, cardboard boxes, cigarette ends
Or other testimony of summer nights. The nymphs are departed.
And their friends, the loitering heirs of city directors;
Departed, have left no addresses.
By the waters of Leman I sat down and wept...
Sweet Thames, run softly till I end my song,
Sweet Thames, run softly, for I speak not loud or long.
But at my back in a cold blast I hear
The rattle of the bones, and chuckle spread from ear to ear.

-- from "The Waste Land" by T.S. Elliot
JohnnyC   Thu Jul 17, 2008 11:22 pm GMT
Wintereis, thanks for posting that. There are too many people on this site (and everywhere of course) who offer opinions blindly, without the benefit of spending any time getting to know the subject on which they're opining. Witness the Europeans who comment that there's no healthy food to be had in Texas because they saw it on a television tabloid documentary on France 2 (formerly Antenne Deux), or the Northerners here in the US who think the South and West US are intellectual wastelands, referring to that area as "the fly-over states". People who hold onto these prejudices hurt themselves more than anyone because, thinking they already know everything, they don't allow themselves to take in new, and more accurate information that may contradict ideas they currently hold.

I liked your poem. Now how do we get those nymphs back??
Wintereis   Fri Jul 18, 2008 2:49 am GMT
JohnnyC, I have no clue how to get the nymphs back . . . I've always prefered an apollonian man to any nymph.
Amabo   Fri Jul 18, 2008 11:58 am GMT
So, essentially, what you're all saying is that, in any given country, some regions will usually be more prosperous than others for various reasons.

And so the revenues collected by the country's government in the more prosperous regions will often be used to assist less prosperous regions.

Gosh, what a revelation!

Who would have known?!
Gay Guest   Fri Jul 18, 2008 8:37 pm GMT
<<make being gay an offense punishable by death.>>

... or at least a good spanking.
NewEnglander   Fri Jul 18, 2008 11:28 pm GMT
<<or the Northerners here in the US who think the South and West US are intellectual wastelands, referring to that area as "the fly-over states">>

I'd only ever heard that expression used once before -- and it came from the mouth of a Michigander who was complaining that all of the people on each of the coasts use this expression. Could it be that you have your own stereotypes and misconceptions about us Northerners, JohnnyC? ;-)